Commentary: Former D-Cub Porter inspiring young Astros

Former Daytona Cubs outfielder Bo Porter is enthusiastically inspiring a young Houston Astros club in his first spring as a big league manager. Will it translate to wins when the season starts Sunday?

SEAN KERNANSTAFF WRITER

KISSIMMEE – Rookie manager Bo Porter paced in front of Houston's dugout, urging on his young Astros as they trailed the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0 in the bottom of the ninth inning.

“Let's break their heart,” Porter repeated every few steps as he looked into his players' eyes. “Let's go, guys. Let's break their heart.”

Keep in mind this was just a spring training game – a game in which Porter had already used 16 position players.

But the Astros responded, scoring two runs and bringing the potential winning run to the plate, before the Pirates prevailed 3-2 at Osceola County Stadium.

Even though it was a loss on a day when things weren't going well – the Astros had just two hits through eight innings – Porter showed the passion, energy and attitude to play all 27 outs that he's attempting to instill into a struggling organization.

It's the same passion Daytona Cubs fans saw from a 40th-round draft pick, who cut his teeth in pro ball at Jackie Robinson Ballpark in the mid-1990s.

“There was never a day that I woke up and didn't believe that I was going to play in the big leagues,” recalled Porter, who reached the majors as an outfielder with the Cubs, Rangers and Braves.

“It goes to show that you can never account for what lies inside a man.”

Now Porter, who at 40 years old is the youngest manager in the big leagues, is trying to make believers out of a young Astros team that had the worst record in the majors last season. The Astros, who have been moved from the National League Central to the American League West, open the regular season at home at 8:05 Sunday night on ESPN against the rival Texas Rangers.

At least nine Astros will open the season for the first time on a major league roster. And Porter, a former football and baseball standout with the Iowa Hawkeyes, has been in full motivational mode since he was hired in September. At every turn inside the Astros' clubhouse are inspirational words and messages.

“It's the same philosophy that I keep talking to the team about: Keep pushing that will, keep pushing that will, and you're gonna have a breakthrough,” said Porter, the only former D-Cub player to become a big league skipper. “And when that breakthrough happens, people on the outside are going say, ‘Oh, my.' ”

Porter, a Newark, N.J., native, is young enough to remember what it was like toiling in the minors. One of his first moves in Astros camp was not putting players' names on the back of their uniforms. The strategy signified how camp was wide open, and how it was all about the team.

“It's the name on the front (of the jersey) that matters,” said Porter, who takes over a team that has lost 213 games the last two seasons. “We'll have 25 guys who will earn the right to have their names on their backs on opening day.”

Porter's work ethic and reputation have won over Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson and former NFL coach Bill Parcells, who still believes Porter, a former defensive back, could have played in the NFL.

Johnson and Parcells have spoken highly of Porter this spring. Johnson and Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez have even gone as far as saying publicly that Porter can call them any time for advice now that the Astros aren't in the National League.

Porter was the Nationals' third-base coach under Johnson, and the veteran manager believes Houston hired the right skipper. “They're in their rebuilding program, obviously, but he's very fundamentally sound in all aspects of the game, and he's a great judge of talent,” Johnson said.

And there is talent in the Astros' organization. It's just young, and much of it isn't ready for the major leagues. General manager Jeff Luhnow has blown up the Astros' roster in his brief watch and acquired a load of prospects in return for veterans that weren't getting the job done.

Luhnow was hired after the 2011 season from St. Louis after rebuilding the Cardinals from within. Houston's farm system has jumped dramatically in rankings by national experts, including Baseball America, which raised the Astros' organization from 17th to ninth.

So when the Astros open the season Sunday, it could be the start of a very long campaign, one in which Houston could reach triple-digit losses for the third straight year.

But it also might be the beginning of a turnaround for a franchise that hasn't had a winning season since 2008 or been to the playoffs since 2005. The Astros had baseball's worst record each of the last two years – 56-106 in 2011 and 55-107 in 2012.

The situation reminds one Astros coach of a young player who achieved more than most thought he could. Third-base coach Dave Trembley was a believer in Porter as a player for the 1995 Daytona Cubs, just as he is a believer in him as a manager.

“I think Bo Porter's gonna manage for a long time,” said Trembley, the former Baltimore Orioles manager, who in '95 guided the D-Cubs to the Florida State League title. “Bo's got great communication skills, he's very organized, and every day he treats the same – you're gonna get after it every day because that's the way he is and that's what he expects. When he has good players here, he's going to win a lot of games. The guys are going to want to play for him. People in the industry, free agents, they're going to want to play for him.”

And if Bo Porter can inspire the Astros to get up for the bottom of the ninth inning in a spring training game, odds are he'll have them playing hard when the games start to count.